In Universal Pictures "Public Enemies," opening nationwide today, Johnny Depp, as Public Enemy No. 1 John Dillinger, is shown dining on steak in some of Chicago's best restaurants of the day.

It's not unlike Depp himself, who loves to eat at Gibson's Steakhouse while in Chicago. He paid a late night visit to the celebrity favorite restaurant following the June 18 Chicago premiere of "Public Enemies."

Depp even made headlines after he left his waiter a $4,000 tip for serving his party of 12.

But Dillinger wasn't always the biggest and the best for appeasing his appetite.

The farm boy raised outside Indianapolis in Mooresville preferred the "meat and potato basics," especially a good cut of beef and fresh fried chicken.

When on the run from the law, as shown in one of the earlier film scenes following his 1933 jailbreak at Michigan City Prison, even fried bacon sandwiches, wrapped in newspapers, were enough to satisfy his hunger while on the road fleeing authorities.

Anna Sage, the Romanian madam who ran a brothel in East Chicago and became known as "the Lady in Red" after she helped FBI agents set up Dillinger to gun him down on July 22, 1934, even sometimes cooked for the most wanted man in America.

She told newspapers in 1935, just as she was being deported back to Europe, that Dillinger often dined with her, and his gal pal Polly Hamilton, at her North Side apartment in Chicago.

"He was fond of frog legs, chicken and steak," Sage wrote in one account.

"He used to go downtown to the big restaurants. And he'd buy these foods so I could cook them for him."

He also loved going to the horse track and to the movies, which is why he spent his final fateful evening in the comfort of the air-conditioned Biograph, watching Clark Gable as a mobster and Myrna Loy as his moll opposite good guy William Powell in the 1934 film "Manhattan Melodrama."

Last week, during an appearance on David Letterman's talk show, Depp listed Powell and Humphrey Bogart as his two favorite all-time actors.

Sandy Mangen, owner of "Tommy Gun's Garage," the legendary dinner theater show in Chicago's South Loop, has been hosting gangster-themed dinners for decades. Though her establishment focuses its attention on a "roaring 1920s speakeasy" environment, much of the gangster-themed premise is universal, with featured menu items like "Don't Call Me Chicken" aka a boneless chicken breast with Marsala or lemon herb sauce and "The Kingpin" roasted prime rib.

"Gangsters make for a fun evening of entertainment," Mangen said.

"And it's a different show every night, because you never know what to expect."

Since 1988, Tommy Gun's Garage, 2114 S. Wabash Ave., has been the secret hiding place of a favorite speakeasy and gangster headquarters (tommygunsgarage.com or (800) 462-0178).

Described as "unconventional, interactive dinner theater," it allows guests the chance to visit a re-creation of a gangster garage hangout, complete with bootleg booze, gambling, flappers and great music from Cole Porter and Duke Ellington.

And right in the middle of the nightly dinner and show, the place still traditionally gets raided by Officer Murphy and his coppers.

Dillinger, who is said to have thought of himself as a modern-day Robin Hood, would have loved the theatrics of it all.

Here are two original 1935 recipes from Hollywood legends Clark Gable, who died at age 59 in 1960, and Myrna Loy, who died in 1993 at age 88, which Dillinger would also have loved. If he lived just a few months longer, he would have seen them printed in a special recipe booklet "Let the Stars Show You" featuring the top box office stars of MGM Studios.

Clark Gable's Griddle Breakfast Cakes with Maple Syrup

2 cups Bisquick mix

1 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup of blueberries, rinsed and dried

DIRECTIONS: Combine Bisquick mix, milk and eggs. For a slightly thinner pancake, add 1 1/2 cups of milk instead of one cup. Fold in berries. Heat a greased griddle or frying pan. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake and cook until edges are firm and then turn and heat until golden. Serve with fresh maple syrup. Makes 14 griddle cakes.

Myrna Loy's Cassoulet

(A French Bean and Meat Stew)

1 pound dried white beans, such as Great Northern

1/4 pound pork rind

3/4 pound lean salt pork in one chunk

1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced

1 bouquet garni (made by making a small bag from cheesecloth, filled with 4 springs parsley, a 2-inch piece of carrot, chopped, 2 cloves garlic, unpeeled, 1 chopped rib of celery with leaves, 1 bay leaf and a pinch of thyme, tied up)

1 pound Polish sausage, left in one piece

2 pounds boneless lean pork loin

1 1/2 pounds boneless shoulder or breast of lamb, cut into two-inch cubes

3 tablespoons vegetable oil or goose or chicken fat

Cracked lamb or pork bones (optional)

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1/2 bottle dry white wine

1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth, diluted with enough water to equal 2 cups

1 bay leaf

Pinch of thyme

Salt and pepper

1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

1/3 cup parsley, chopped

DIRECTIONS: Add enough cold water to beans to cover, soaking overnight. Then, bring beans to a boil in a saucepan, simmering several minutes before removing from heat. Let stand soaking in the cooking water, for 1 hour. Wash pork rind; place in another saucepan and cover with cold water. Simmer 20 minutes to remove excess fat and saltiness. Drain, cool, cut into bits. Add pork rind pieces to beans, along with the chunk of salt pork, added sliced yellow onion and bouquet bag and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour. Add the Polish sausage, kept in one piece, and simmer 30 minutes longer, adding more liquid if needed and salt to taste. Discard bouquet bag and remove sausage to a platter. Drain beans mixture, reserving liquid. Bake pork loin in a preheated 300-degree oven until internal temperature reaches 180 degrees on a meat thermometer. Reserve cooking juices from roast. Place vegetable oil in bottom of a heavy skillet and brown all sides of lamb meat. Brown bones (if using) and set

aside. Add onions to skillet and lightly saute. Return browned lamb, bones to skillet with onions, and add garlic, tomato sauce, wine, beef broth, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer slowly for 1 1/4 hours, stirring often. Lift out meat and discard bones and bay leaf. Skim off and discard any fat floating. Add the cooked, drained beans, plus any roast pork drippings and enough of the bean cooking stock liquid to cover beans. Bring to boil; simmer for 10 minutes. Let stand in cooking juice for 5 minutes. Drain beans, again, retaining cooking liquid. Cut pork loin into bite-size chunks. Slice pork chuck into thin pieces. Cut sausage into 1/2-inch rounds. Put layers of cooked beans in bottom of a greased 5-quart oven safe pot or an earthenware casserole. Top with layers of lamb, pork, salt pork and sausage, ending with bread crumbs mixed with the parsley. Cook immediately in a 350-degree oven 90 minutes. During baking, break the simmering top and stir to mix well

and baste. If needed, add more stock left from reserved bean liquid. Makes 10 servings.